Rory
Juniors
- Messages
- 188
The only real difference is that League simply isnt as popular (for e.g.) Ireland. If us Irish people played out rugby union like we play our league, we'd be on a different level.
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Yeah what I'm saying is we need professional pathways for nations to progress. Relative to the size of their league Ireland gets a decent amount of players signed up by semi-pro clubs in the UK, but it's never going be more than a trickle unless there is some sort of professional club or pathway in Ireland and elsewhere to really bring through players of a high standard.
Last WC's they (Europeans sides) were pretty competitive, Ireland were pretty good but in all fairness to the Pacific nations (notably Fiji, PNG, Tonga) they were far deserving of it.
In terms of investments, the rewards should go to the most proactive sides in development so Fiji, PNG, Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands. Like I've mentioned a Pacific 6 Nations is a MUST!! it gives them a chance to come up against the best teams and a regular chance to represent their heritage. They can only get better.
In what way are those nations the most proactive in development? Because they have a load of NRL players who learned the game overseas? Not criticizing them for this BTW as these are tiny places where domestic potential will always be comparatively small, but how many players in the WC have been developed by Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Cook Islands? I think the answer is one between the four of them, a fringe bloke in the Fiji squad who hasn't got a run. Again it's not a criticism, they can succeed in other ways but trying to claim that these nations are doing more development than the others is just wrong.
Are you really Irish? I'm assuming you have never been over here (I'm from Liverpool, England). NRL and Super League are incomparable. There are many ways I could show the difference, but I will use one. Outside the towns (and Leeds and Hull) that the Rugby league players here play for, they could walk down any high street in the U.K. and virtually no-one would know who they are. Sam Tomkins spoke about this. It's a culture shock to the top players who move to the NRL and become recognised in Sydney for example. Go a few miles outside Rugby league towns like Widnes and you enter an area where the sport basically doesn't exist. The big cities in the north of England like Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield? Forget it. And it's in the north of England where all the English Super League teams are located.
Appreciate the effort that went into that post. My father was Irish, and yes I’ve been to Ireland, London and Newcastle, but I’ve never lived in England or Ireland. I understand the EPL rules all and union has a powerfull stranglehold. Australia does have union and AFL to deal with, League is only really played in 2 states here also. I understand afl isn’t the beast that the EPL is. But to me the ESL needs work.
Except they don't, did Phil Gould tell you they do that? Pretty obvious from your posts in general that you've never watched ESL and don't know anything about it. And with due respect you cannot possibly even come close to being able to understand how the situation is here.
All good mate, I’ll admit I do watch some games, but it’s not week in week out. As I said my opinion is only from the outside looking in. I actually want a strong powerful ESL.
